Device for the suspension of tobacco leaves and analogous purposes



1962 F. T. EDRIDGE DEVICE FOR THE SUSPENSION OF TOBACCO LEAVES AND ANALOGOUS PURPOSES Filed July 15, 1960 wi mm m QM M n l Nmik I n venlor Haas/aux 7/105 ZQE/DGE' orne y 3,056,621 Patented Oct. 2, 1962 3,056,621 DEVICE FOR THE SUSPENSHON F TOBACCO LEAVES AND ANALOGUUS PURPQSES Frederick Tilden Edridge, Miange, R0. Box 219, Marandellas, Southern Rhodesia Filed July 13, 1960, Ser. No. 42,543 5 Claims. (Q1. 294-55) This invention relates to the suspension of tobacco leaves or other articles along a line in the general arrangement in which tobacco leaves or hands of tobacco leaves are suspended along sticks or strings for treatment in curing barns.

In my earlier application Serial No. 827,240, filed July 15, 1959, granted as Patent No. 2,948,408 on August 9, 1960, I have described a simple and effective device for such purposes as the above which, in its application for instance to the suspension of tobacco leaves, enables a single operative to perform the reaping of the leaves and, in substantially the same motion without repeated handling, their fixing to the device with the necessary security to prevent the leaves from falling away from the device during handling thereof and also during the curing treatment, when the leaf butts undergo shrinkage and tend to fall out of the strings, which have hitherto been used as a means of fixing the leaf butts to the stick. I have now made certain improvements in or additions to the invention contained in my earlier application aforementioned, to obtain certain advantages over the constructions of device specifically disclosed in that application, which improvements or modifications, to be eX- plained below, constitute the subject matter of the present invention, and can be regarded as improvements in or modifications of the invention patented on my aforesaid application.

According to one feature of this invention, I do not rely upon the direct engagement of springs with the tobacco leaf butts (or corresponding parts of other articles to be hung) to obtain a satisfactory clamping grip upon the butts (or the like) the thickness of which varies considerably, giving rise to a tendency for thinner butts (or the like) being insufliiciently securely gripped and/or the thicker butts (or the like) being over-severely gripped, with consequent tendency for some of the articles to fall away during the drying and/ or for others to be damaged by at least partial cutting through.

On the other hand I arrange for the resilient grip on the articles to be suspended to be provided between resiliently separable surfaces, some of which are presented by plates which are resiliently urged by resilient elements or springs and others of which are presented by abut ments occurring at intervals along the device and subdividing the length thereof into a number of sections, such abutments being either stationary or movable along the device.

It is also a feature of the invention that surfaces referred to above and between which the articles to be suspended may be clamped, are spiked, roughened or otherwise devised to achieve the satisfactory clamping grip on the articles, without need for undesirably heavy clamping forces and corresponding increase of the strength of the resilient elements relied upon to produce such force.

It is a further feature of this invention that the afore mentioned stationary or movable abutments, by subdividing the device into sections, provide for the device receiving a moderate number of articles, e.g. tobacco butts, in each section progressively and, if the abutments are stationary, for the articles being clamped to the device in each section independently of the clamping of articles in other sections. Such latter provision, as it does not rely upon the operator having continually to have one hand on the device to maintain the clamping of the articles until the whole device is charged, offers the very great advantage that the operator is free to use both hands, e.g. for picking the leaves and inserting them in the respective sections of the device. This presupposes, of course, that some means is provided for suspending the device generally in the same position with reference to the operator as the device is described to be used in my earlier application. A simple form of harness to be worn by the operator can readily be provided to suspend the device by its further end, while its nearer end may be supported directly by the operators body; or the harness or the like may otherwise be devised to support the device in the most convenient manner and to enable the operator to have both hands free for charging the device as aforesaid.

Another feature of this invention is that the resilientlyor spring-urged plates, as preferably also the abutments with which they cooperate as clamps, are so configurated as to offer throats for the easy reception between them of the butts of hands of tobacco leaves thrust into the respective sections for clamping therein. The configuration of such parts may in addition, or alternately, be such as to facilitate the separation of the clamping surfaces by the figures further to facilitate the insertion of the leaf butts.

A further feature of the invention is concerned with facilitating the stripping the tobacco leaves or the like at any subsequent stage, e.g. after curing and in readiness for grading, from the clamping sections of the device. By way of example, the plates or the like which are resiliently urged towards the respective stationary or other partner abutments, may be provided with formations laterally directed from them so that the whole device presents along it formations which, with the aid of a simple tool, may all of them be engaged for simultaneous unclarnping of the articles in all of the sections of the device. Thus, for instance, in the case of the device being charged as above with tobacco leaves, and the curing of the latter having been completed, the charged device may be laid with its leaves upon a table alongside a row of pegs or the equivalent spaced equi-distantly with the lateral projections from the clamping plates or the like, the latter being engaged with the pegs or the like, which serve as stops against which the device may be drawn to open all the clamps and release all the leaves in one operation on to the table for grading.

pressible elements or compression springs slidably mounted across the space between said members so as to b freely moveable as from a gathered or compacted disposition at one end of the device in series singly towards its opposite end. The present invention is not, however, limited in this respect and is applicable to devices which are found to be the equivalent of the previously described device and which may broadly be stated to be a device for the suspension of articles along a line, comprising at least one elongated member having attached thereto a series of shorter elements which are resiliently separable from one another. Thus, for instance, where a single elongated member is used it' may take the form of a tube having the shorter elements which consist of or embody springs, contained within the interior of the tube; the elements which provide the clamping surfaces of the several sections being exposed along the outside of the tube, and the clamping plates cngageable with the respective stationary abutments being motivated by the springs through slots or the like formed in the wall of the tube.

Furthermore, when two elongated parallel rod or like members are used the shorter, resiliently compressible, elements or compression springs may be arranged to embrace and work on the two parallel members, that is they may be helical coil springs, the clamping plates, motivated by the springs, as also the stationary or rnoveable abutments spanning the two rod or like members of the device. These two members, as also the single tubular member referred to above, may be regarded in this invention as main frames of the device.

In order that this invention may be more clearly understood reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings which show a simple and preferred embodiment of this invention, and in particular the case first referred to in the immediately preceding paragraph. In these drawings:

- FIGURE 1 is a plan view of the device, broken in length and showing some only of the clamping devices of which there may be any number, depending upon the actual length to which the device is constructed;

FIGURE 2 is a fragmentary view in illustration of a clamping device opened as for reception of the articles between the cooperating parts;

FIGURE 3 is a section on the line 33 of FIGURE 1; and

FIGURES 4, 5 and 6 are detailed views of components of the device shown in the earlier figures.

The construction of this device will be readily apparent from the drawings in which the parallel members or rods 1 and 2 which are joined into the form of an elongated rectangular frame by ends 3 and 4, are spanned at intervals, and incidentally also kept in the parallel condition by plate elements as 5, 6, 7 and 8. Each element, the form of which is more clearly illustrated in FIGURES 5 and 6, comprises an upwardly directed flange as 511 and end loops as 5b which Wrap round the respective rods or elements 1 and 2. Alternating with these plates along the length of the device are the further plates as 9, 10, 11 and 12, the form of which plates is clearly shown in FIGURE 4, having a generally flat form extended at the ends to form eyes as 921 which are freely slidable respectively on the rods or elements 1 and 2. Helical coil springs as 13 and 14 respectively encircling the rods or elements 1 and 2 are arranged resiliently to urge plates as 9 into clamping engagement with plates as 5, and their upper parts, marked 9b in FIGURE 4 are provided with prongs or the like as 90, which, when the plates are urged together as aforesaid, occur above the main body of the plates 5 and opposite to the flanges 5a thereof.

In use, cooperating plate pairs as 5 and 9 are opened away from one another as shown in FIGURE 2 for the admission of the articles, e.g. several butts of tobacco leaf, between them for clamping under the resilient action of the springs as 13 and 14.

Such main frames as are referred to above, before reference to the drawings and each of which is subdivided to provide if desired quite independently chargeable sections, may also if desired, according to a further feature of the invention, be joined side by side with or without separating distance spacers, even to the extent that when two main frames are arranged side by side the members lying adjacent to each other might merge completely with one another and become, for instance, three or more members in spaced parallel arrangement. Main frames may also or alternatively be connectable end-toend.

It is thus possible to construct the device so that it con stitutes as it were a battery of the devices as above described, the battery being carried complete by the operative, suitably suspended as already indicated, to enable him to work with both hands for the picking and inserting the tobacco leaf hands into the various sections of the device or battery.

It is to be understood also that as in the case where a tubular member (or battery of such members) is used, as also in other cases, the elements which provide the clamping surfaces (spiked or otherwise surfaced) may extend laterally in such a way as that the tobacco leaf butts may be gripped on the outside of the element or elements constituting the device or a part of the battery.

' In the foregoing description it has been assumed that the direction in which the clamping forces are applied to grip the tobacco leaf butts or other articles is lengthwise of the device or of each device which is embodied in a battery. The invention however is not limited to this arrangement because if desired in each section of the device or of each device included in a battery, motivation of the clamping plates or the like may take place transversely of the length of the device. Thus, for example, where the device contains at least two elongated members in parallel arrangement, the clamping plates and abutments may lie in the direction lengthwise of the device and the former may be motivated by the springs, transversely, eg by coil springs encircling and resiliently moveable upon cross pieces, which serve also as spacers for the elongated members.

It is to be understood also that within the more general language of the description above given there is included the arrangement wherein along the device, for example along an elongated member which is comprised therein, the resilient elements and abutments which cooperate for clamping the leaves or the like and which also define the sections which may be independently chargeable, may consist of spring clamps, e.g. of the bull dog type, already known per se, such being arranged transversely of the elongated member and having their jaws suitably spiked or otherwise prepared for obtaining the required grip on the articles to be suspended. Such clamps should preferably also be arranged to facilitate insertion of the leaves or the like between their jaws as well as for facilitating the opening of the clamps, simultaneously throughout the device for the purpose of releasing the articles at the correct time and doing so simultaneously with the aid of some such simple means as have been described already.

I claim:

1. A device for suspension of articles comprising an openwork frame defined by a pair of parallel, laterally spaced-apart elongated members, transverse members secured to the lateral members at the ends thereof, means to maintain the lateral spacing of said members throughout their length, said means comprising a plurality of longitudinally spaced-apart stop plate members extending across the space between and fixedly secured to said elongated frame members, a plurality of clamping members extending across the space between and slidably mounted on said elongated frame members, each stop plate member having an associated clamping member, a pair of normally expansible springs disposed about each of the said elongated lateral members and trapped between a stop member of one pair of stop and clamp and 5 the clamping member of the adjacent pair thereof, said springs normally urging the clamp into engagement With the latters associated stop member.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein each stop plate is provided with a flange extending in a plane normal to the plane of the frame.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein each stop plate member is provided with a flange extending in a plane norm-a1 to the plane of the frame, and the clamp associated With each stop plate member similarly comprises a plate extending in a plane normal to the plane of the frame and above and beyond the upper edge of the flange.

4. The device of claim 3, wherein each clamp plate is provided with a plurality of article-engaging elements extending laterally therefrom at an angle substantially 15 normal to the plane of the clamp plate.

6 5. The device of claim 3, wherein each clamp plate is provided with a plurality of article-engaging elements extending laterally therefrom overlying the stop member and extending to a point short of the flange component thereof.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 349,255 Jackson Sept. 14, 1886 956,254 Yorgensen Apr. 26, 1910 2,948,408 Edridge Aug. 9, 1960 FOREIGN PATENTS 100,974 Austria Sept. 10, 1925 

